Video Footage Safe Thread

[NextLevel]

So the first player you beat is the same level as the other two who beat you?

Just wanted some external feedback on technique and playing. Right now i think i need to work on:
- Service recieve
- Better balance when playing shots
- Don't get into too bad positions
- Don't cover too much of the table with backhand
- Focus on having support and balance from left arm
- Dare counter attack on low quality attacks
I feel like i let my opponents attack too much, but I'm having a hard time finding the space for a forehand. I suspect it might be because of my leg position when playing.


For reference the players in this video are around 2100-2200TTR Denmark. Around top 300-200. And my level is 1600TTR.

Here is the video of me playing. Any feedback is fine. (Im in black with black hair)

 

[NakiMaki]

So the first player you beat is the same level as the other two who beat you?

Yes he was 2100 TTR in Denmark. I think actually the last player was the lowest rated even though i lost 3-0 to him

 

[NextLevel]

Yes he was 2100 TTR in Denmark. I think actually the last player was the lowest rated even though i lost 3-0 to him

wow, you beat a player 500 pts higher than you? That's insane...

 

[NakiMaki]

wow, you beat a player 500 pts higher than you? That's insane...

I usually just train, and play league matches. So my rating might be a little low. I don't have it in my budget to play in tournaments all the time

 

[z0uLess]

many forehand problems:

a lot to do with lack of power in forehand that disappears from the body into the movement of the elbow, it seems. a bit too much icecream cone in the way I hold the racket, so no snap through the wrist. maybe hitting the ball a bit too far infront of the body. also hitting the ball with the arm rather than taking the power from body rotation, at times.

need to hold the racket a bit higher in between shots to have shorter travel time into the strokes. generally bad timing.

still fighting on, having started TT at the age of 38 makes it quite hard to develop a good forehand!

 

[NextLevel]

many forehand problems:

a lot to do with lack of power in forehand that disappears from the body into the movement of the elbow, it seems. a bit too much icecream cone in the way I hold the racket, so no snap through the wrist. maybe hitting the ball a bit too far infront of the body. also hitting the ball with the arm rather than taking the power from body rotation, at times.

need to hold the racket a bit higher in between shots to have shorter travel time into the strokes. generally bad timing.

still fighting on, having started TT at the age of 38 makes it quite hard to develop a good forehand!

First of all, I congratulate you on your improvement. You do not look quite as rushed as I remember and you aren't always trying to hit the ball extremely hard.

When I learned to play, I found most of these kinds of analysis you are presenting broadly unhelpful. Unless you are playing much stronger opponents, most of these things are not why you are losing. You still haven't figured out how to trust your approach to hitting the ball mostly the same way every time to produce mostly the same result against variety of incoming balls. That is what I take away from what I see. It is usually when your technically correct shots look very similar to each other that you realize that you are becoming a very good player. I see a shot that is working, but it is not obvious it is being deliberately repeated to produce the same effect every time or to figure out how to place it precisely and accurately.

Ultimately, what I found worked when I was training around your playing level was learning how to block the ball (so I could practice with good players), and then learning how to catch and spin the ball with my own approach, which was of course influenced by feedback by others, but was still my approach because what I cared about was being able to put the ball on the table under pressure. Being able to loop the ball 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 50 times vs block. Being able to hit one cross court, get a block and hit the ball down the line 10 times without missing. Figuring out why I missed and how to adjust.

In some ways, your technique looks much better now and I think you could actually use your forehand if you actually committed to trying to use it to be consistent and forget about power. Low power can often be increased relatively easily with higher rebound equipment. But the inability to control the ball is the inability to control the ball and that will always be an issue.

It would be nice to see your forehand in matches. But the problem is not your age. I know people who started out older than you and got basically as good as I am. One of them posts once in a blue moon.

The problem is using a framework that is simple to get consistency. Find a simple way to approach the ball that works. Put a target on the table and try to use your technique to hit that target no matter what ball comes at you. After that you can complicate it. But many people produce good shots looping with just their arm. Just using your arm is not your problem in terms of producing reasonable shots. You are not trying to be Ma Long.

 

[NextLevel]

Just wanted some external feedback on technique and playing. Right now i think i need to work on:
- Service recieve
- Better balance when playing shots
- Don't get into too bad positions
- Don't cover too much of the table with backhand
- Focus on having support and balance from left arm
- Dare counter attack on low quality attacks
I feel like i let my opponents attack too much, but I'm having a hard time finding the space for a forehand. I suspect it might be because of my leg position when playing.


For reference the players in this video are around 2100-2200TTR Denmark. Around top 300-200. And my level is 1600TTR.

Here is the video of me playing. Any feedback is fine. (Im in black with black hair)

The main reason the first two guys struggled witj you was their deficient backhand power. They are clearly old school players who spin the ball and their game is not as effective was it was once upon a time. Thr last player caused more errors on your serve return and also finished the ball with faster drives, not letting you get into rhythm with your blocking routine on repeated topspins

There are many directions in which you can go, the played yoj played probably didn't let use see some things you might do better. But here is my shoet list.

1. Serve length control: you serve long a lot which is not bad and formally woeks because you can block the openers but blocking someone's return of your serve is likely going to put you on the defensive if they didn't take risk to get the return.

2. Backhand blocking and overall approach: it is very solid but being able to counterattack when the topspins are being repeated is essential. Also your elboe position doesn't allow for switching between backhand and forehand quickly.

3. It is normal to find it hard to get in vs players who are better, so it is impressive you actually managed to defend many attacks. Learning to push short and consistently attack half long balls is hard to learn but it is the next step. Also some banana flicking. BUt you would need to improve your elbow positioning and your backhand to get into that. Ball depth control especially on serve and receive is critical to get opportunities to attack first. Part of the reason you didn't get opportunities was serving long and failing to consistently attack the first long return. You often accepted pushing back push returns.

But I am really impressed with your game dor how long you have played, the main issue is getting better exposure to better environments because the longer you stick with not have extremely personalized coaching, the moee things you need to fix as you get better. Good luck with it.

 

[z0uLess]

First of all, I congratulate you on your improvement. You do not look quite as rushed as I remember and you aren't always trying to hit the ball extremely hard.

When I learned to play, I found most of these kinds of analysis you are presenting broadly unhelpful. Unless you are playing much stronger opponents, most of these things are not why you are losing. You still haven't figured out how to trust your approach to hitting the ball mostly the same way every time to produce mostly the same result against variety of incoming balls. That is what I take away from what I see. It is usually when your technically correct shots look very similar to each other that you realize that you are becoming a very good player. I see a shot that is working, but it is not obvious it is being deliberately repeated to produce the same effect every time or to figure out how to place it precisely and accurately.

Ultimately, what I found worked when I was training around your playing level was learning how to block the ball (so I could practice with good players), and then learning how to catch and spin the ball with my own approach, which was of course influenced by feedback by others, but was still my approach because what I cared about was being able to put the ball on the table under pressure. Being able to loop the ball 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 50 times vs block. Being able to hit one cross court, get a block and hit the ball down the line 10 times without missing. Figuring out why I missed and how to adjust.

In some ways, your technique looks much better now and I think you could actually use your forehand if you actually committed to trying to use it to be consistent and forget about power. Low power can often be increased relatively easily with higher rebound equipment. But the inability to control the ball is the inability to control the ball and that will always be an issue.

It would be nice to see your forehand in matches. But the problem is not your age. I know people who started out older than you and got basically as good as I am. One of them posts once in a blue moon.

The problem is using a framework that is simple to get consistency. Find a simple way to approach the ball that works. Put a target on the table and try to use your technique to hit that target no matter what ball comes at you. After that you can complicate it. But many people produce good shots looping with just their arm. Just using your arm is not your problem in terms of producing reasonable shots. You are not trying to be Ma Long.

 

[Deep74]

Hi guys I have a couple of match highlights about 5 mins each if your able to review/analyse and all criticism on technique, footwork, or tactics or any aspect u see is welcome as will only help improve.

I’m the one in black.

One issue is I don’t always recover from my serve at optimal distance and find I can be too close and cramped, whenever I created that distance better the 3rd was a lot better also being able to go forward rather than cramped and up. My style is aggressive looking to attack both wings. Serve receives can definitely be better.

Thank you guys in advance.

 

[Deep74]

Also would be grateful if can have feedback on couple of training clips, getting help from a very good player at my club who plays SBL uk and also plays in French league. Been having 1:1 with him for 3 wks or so now which I find is helping but more feedback would be great.

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

 

[NextLevel]

So I can't fully tell what is going on here, but I will give my perspective which might be projection but I find that this particular projection applies to a lot of players. You don't believe in spin and control as real weapons on offense, you are overly enamored with speed. Like I said, you have enough to play good table tennis but you either whack the ball or push and almost never use spin as a weapon or loop the ball to interesting places to put pressure on the opponent with your placement. When you spin ans your opponent blocks, if you cant smash, you are not ready to continue to the attack with another topspin. All of this is typical for a certain level of play. To go beyond it, you have to focus for a while on playing topspins on almost every ball and learning how to adjust your swing to the spin on the ball. Focus on following the shape of the ball and adding rotation not on making the ball go faster initially. Feel as if you are trying to brush every ball. Not upwards but to follow the shape in a way that controls and adds spin, especially with the feeling of the fingers. Over time, you will be able to add speed to this with more forearm and body. But right now unfortunately, your speed based play is going to leave you unable to attack too many balls that you should be consistently attacking and it might be partly that you play a bit too close to the table when the rally opens up.

In any case, focus less on making the ball go fast and focus on trying to use topspin to keep the ball on the table. Let the opponent hit 3 to 5 shots to win the point. When you can do topspins consistently, then aggression becomes about shot selection. But when you can't, then aggression becomes luck and determined by your mood and timing on that day.

Long story short, brush much more, slap much less. It is not how you will play forever, it is to introduce a dimension to your play to keep you consistent against all kinds of balls.

None of this doesn't mean you have not improved a lot. It is just my way od explaining how to get much better really fast.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

you need more right leg in your FH shots.
once you get that right, your forehand will be rocket launchers.

for the under spin feed, you need another step to get into position then step to get the power from your right leg.

here you can see the step I am talking about

very impressed Mr 51.

You play better than some of the ones that are allowed to comment here.

 

[NextLevel]

Also would be grateful if can have feedback on couple of training clips, getting help from a very good player at my club who plays SBL uk and also plays in French league. Been having 1:1 with him for 3 wks or so now which I find is helping but more feedback would be great.

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

Pretty advanced play. The quality of your game and your coaching shows. Any comments would be nitpicking and would be tied to doing things I almost never do (you have very fast hands so moat of the room for growth is in the lowrr body).. So I will leave it at congratulating your game and thanking you for sharing the video. You should be advising us lol.

 

[Ghostzen]

Also would be grateful if can have feedback on couple of training clips, getting help from a very good player at my club who plays SBL uk and also plays in French league. Been having 1:1 with him for 3 wks or so now which I find is helping but more feedback would be great.

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

Hi Deep,

Hitting some nice balls in the training with MN at the AW I think?

Good work and keep it up.

Cheers

Apologies I forgot, not able to comment on this.

 

[Deep74]

you need more right leg in your FH shots.
once you get that right, your forehand will be rocket launchers.

for the under spin feed, you need another step to get into position then step to get the power from your right leg.

here you can see the step I am talking about

very impressed Mr 51.

You play better than some of the ones that are allowed to comment here.

Thank you for the compliment, yes I definitely need to use more lower body and improve footwork with the small steps in between strokes.

Hopefully one day may get there.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Thank you for the compliment, yes I definitely need to use more lower body and improve footwork with the small steps in between strokes.

Hopefully one day may get there.

good luck!

 

[Deep74]

Hi Deep,

Hitting some nice balls in the training with MN at the AW I think?

Good work and keep it up.

Cheers

Apologies I forgot, not able to comment on this.

Yes mate he’s been helping me recently and it’s been very beneficial.

Who is this btw if u don’t mind me asking as you’re clearly aware of the club I’m training at.

 

[NextLevel]

Hi Deep,

Hitting some nice balls in the training with MN at the AW I think?

Good work and keep it up.

Cheers

Apologies I forgot, not able to comment on this.

You're more than qualified unless you don'twant to for misgivings about the thread design. I can fix that. Would appreciate any input you havw on anything.

 

[Deep74]

Pretty advanced play. The quality of your game and your coaching shows. Any comments would be nitpicking and would be tied to doing things I almost never do (you have very fast hands so moat of the room for growth is in the lowrr body).. So I will leave it and congratulating your game and thanking you for sharing the video. You should be advising us lol.

Thank you buddy much appreciated. I feel it’s never too late to improve and ask for advice. Different people may spot what I’m missing.

 

[NextLevel]

Thank you buddy much appreciated. I feel it’s never too late to improve and ask for advice. Different people may spot what I’m missing.

I have added you and @Ghostzen to the approved posters/commenters list, the goal of the thread is to create a place where people who have put in the work and who have posted or shared video with moderators can comment kindly on the videos of others. Its not fun to get lots of comments from people whose advice you cannot put in context because you have no clue how they play. It is not an obligation, you can be on the list and never post here, but I hope you do, many players are hungry for kind and informed guidance.